2007 Echezeaux

Game, soy, peat, and ginger in the nose of the Forey 2007 Echezeaux go on to inform a dense, firmly but finely tannic palate, along with lightly-cooked purple plum. Smoky and pungent in its quite gripping finish, this appears to have some serious cellar potential if the gaminess does not get out of hand. But the generosity and charm of many of the best 2007s are not this wine’s fortes. I’d tentatively figure it for 7-9 years but carefully monitor its evolution. Regis Forey’s 2008s enjoyed up to a month of skin contact (including cold soaks). He punched down only sparingly at the onset of fermentation – then heated the vats at the tail end in an effort to fatten the wines a bit. They finished malo in mi-summer and were racked twice – the second time in December and into tank – to help clarify them sufficiently so that he would not feel it necessary to filter. Considering how the fruit looked at harvest, Forey says he was amazed by how well his 2007s turned out. That was his view already by the time I first tasted them, coming off of early malos in late winter 2008; and in bottle they preserve the bright fruit that many 07s exhibited early on but which was in so many instances dulled or muddied meantime. As is now routine here, the village wines (and Bourgogne) were rendered almost entirely in demi-muids of varied provenance (including even a smidgeon of American oak) but always, says Forey, “very slowly-toasted, without touching the flame.” This size permits him to utilize 50% new wood, but with less surface contact per volume. It’s hard to argue with the approach, given Forey’s consistent excellence of village-level results. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990